My newest bill from Comcast came in the mail today and I noticed one of my promotions had ended this cycle, leaving me at $168/month for cable and internet. I'm a full-time law student and, to be honest, I don't have that kind of cash lying around, particularly when I'm rarely at home to watch my TV anyway. So, I started thinking about my options. I called Comcast and they were able to get me down to $120/month with expanded cable and 12 mbps internet. That is still more than I want to pay. I have Uverse as an option in my area, but I just can't say goodbye to my TiVo. I love the intuitive interface (even though I'm not even on the new Premiere UI) and the accuracy of the fast forwarding.

So I'm thinking about ditching cable all together and going just to streaming, but I'd appreciate some input on what sort of supplies you might recommend for someone in my situation.

My Situation
I'm 24, female, single (so no one else to get onboard my cable cutting plan), no kids needing entertainment, and never watch sports or news. My shows are Doctor Who, Family Guy, American Dad, Big Band Theory, Gossip Girl, and Hart of Dixie. I will also watch HGTV and DIY network; I'm worried I'm going to miss those if I cut the cord, but both have episodes for free online. I'm not really a movie watcher, but Redbox is always an option.

I know I need to buy two HD antennas and an additional TiVo box as well as a wireless receiver for the new TiVo. I was thinking about dropping my subscription to Netflix, as I rarely watch it, and going with Amazon Prime instead for the unlimited streaming. And really, I'm only thinking about Amazon Prime for the upcoming season Doctor Who, since the new episodes aren't available (legally) online or on Netflix (shortly after they come out) or Hulu Plus.

I see a lot of people have Roku boxes in their setups. Is this primarily for sports? What would be the compelling reason to add this to my setup? I know it streams, but can't I do the same thing with my Wii and my TiVo(s)? I'm trying to cut my costs, and while I know there will be some start-up costs associated with cutting the cord, I'd like to keep them to a minimum.

As far as Premiere, if I'm perfectly happy with my HD as far as space goes but am sort of enticed by the fancy Premiere UI, could I get by with a used Premiere, do you think?

You can just have intermet from comcast, or U-verse. U-verse currently has a $30/month internet deal at 12meg speed. Go OTA with an antenna, Netflix streaming only for $8, but not everything is streaming. Amazon prime has fee that I think is higher. Hulu is $8, but not as many videos as I would have like.

Tivo HD is fine for Netflix and record 2 channels with just 1 antenna.

2 tvs for 1 person?

The only fee i have is Netflix, $25/3 DVDs including tax. My Tivos are lifetime, just the 1 big expense there.

For internet streaming onto your HD TV, a Roku with subscriptions to netflix ($8/ month) and Hulu + ($8 / month) will give you almost all of the shows you listed. You will also be able to watch your netflix and hulu + subscriptions on your PCs.

For what is not available through either the Roku channels or netflix / hulu + (which you will be watching on the Roku), you can buy current TV episodes / seasons from Amazon Video. For example, I have a season subscription to this years episodes of Deadliest Catch and the episodes become available the day after they air at a cost of $1.89 each.

As long as your internet gives you 4 down your internet video will be in HD(which is basically any Comcast HSI plan except their lowest price basic / starter internet)

For OTA you can use the TIVO as a tuner and recorder. Lifetime TIVO works great for that.

Even though you state you are not into sports, if you have an XBOX 360 and a gold subscription, you can watch ESPN3. They have a lot of live sports and a huge cataloge of recent events for viewing.

Enjoy saving money. Our TV cost is now $16 / month. ($8 netflix, $8 hulu+, tivo is lifetime). We do pay $61 / month to Comcast for Business HSI. We would be paying that anyway for internet even if we were still with DirectTV.

Stick with Comcast for internet, and switch to Broadcast Basic TV. Broadcast Basic is the lowest video package (Comcast may call it lifeline or something) you can subscribe to, and will include your broadcast channels, public access channels, and possibly C-Span and some home shopping crap. It usually runs less than $20 / mo, and will alleviate the need to you to install two antennas (or one roof antenna), and will let you keep you existing cable connection and internet setup.

Comcast will probably force you to pay rack rates for each of these services, so expect to pay $20 for the cable TV, and $50 for the internet connection, plus any F-U fee for cable card (should you need it).

Oh, at first I thought you were questioning 2 Tivos for 1 person. Heck, I had 4, but 3 plugged in, Tivos.. S3, TivoHD, and S1 for 'backups' or dealing with conflicts. S3 is dead (bought another on eBay to use for parts hopefully).. and heck, besides those, I have another non-Tivo recorder.. all in one room.

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